Drawn by the Tides

I’m not sure what it is about the ocean that as a topic and in my life in general I find myself drawn to, it just is and I just am, I guess. Maybe it has something to do with being raised in the Midwest (Chicago) so far from its influence, or that fact that my whole family now lives near or surrounded by it, oceans and gulf, I’m not sure. Then there’s the whole tornado in December thing that got me thinking of how storms (hurricanes) at sea stir up the ocean and feed the fish so much so that they are commonly referred to as fish storms, I blogged about that back in September. And now I've discovered that ships actually fertilize the ocean. Soot from oil burning ships dump lots of soluble iron back and forth across 3 million miles of ocean and this iron has a way of sucking the carbon dioxide from the air into the ocean possibly causing plankton blooms. Some scientists in Japan found that the iron from aerosol emissions mostly sinks to the bottom of the sea without much effect on ocean life but the iron in shipping soot is 80% soluble and is likely to be fertilizing the ocean and has been for quite some time. What does this mean? Scientists aren't sure because it isn't scientifically feasible to test whether or not the fertilizing is harmful to ecosystems or beneficial for carbon uptake. It’s just another uncertainty in the sea of uncertainties that surround me.